Jones: Fans must make a stand

21 October 2012 11:17

Sheffield Wednesday manager Dave Jones has called on fans to "police their own" in the wake of goalkeeper Chris Kirkland being attacked by a Leeds fan during Friday night's Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough.

Kirkland was shoved to the ground by a supporter following Michael Tonge's 76th-minute equaliser for Neil Warnock's men. The suspect has been identified by the police but has yet to be arrested while the Football Association confirmed it is investigating the incident.

Jones, who was also the subject of vicious chanting from some Leeds fans, told Five Live Sportsweek: "In this country we seem to end up going with the minority all the time and it's going to take the majority to sort it out and you've got to police your own clubs."

He added: "It's a football match and we're looking at blaming police and stewards because they're not there. He was a hero, he ran in the crowd, they were slapping him on the back so what do you do about that? It's not one person.

"Do you know what needs to happen? The people that go to the games that are disgusted - and it's going to be hard - they are the ones who should walk out and isolate the people there who are doing it or point out who are doing it.

"Neil said I was upset because I didn't win the game but Neil must be deaf and blind because there wasn't just one person chanting the vile chants they were chanting. That's not what football's all about and it took away from what was a really, really good game."

Leeds boss Warnock believes the law should make a stand to prevent these incidents from happening again.

"Every club has got these fans and for me it's got to start at the very top now," said the former Sheffield United boss. "We know the lad who assaulted him and he's got to go through the courts and they've got to make it detrimental.

"It's all right saying 'go in and get them out', but you've got to be there. It's frightening for stewards - I wouldn't want to be a steward. There shouldn't be any way whatsoever that people should be allowed to run on the field of play.

"Dave said he could have had a weapon and the other good point Dave made at the time was what happened if he (Kirkland) hadn't have got up? He'd made his three subs, what would have happened then? There would have been an absolute riot."